


My lord's duty, my lord.

by Keenir



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: ...and it has nothing to do with dwarves or any mortals, Gen, Letters, Post-Battle of Five Armies, Spoilers for Battle of Five Armies, Thranduil is in here - but makes no appearances, any and all errors in timeline are entirely my own, holy sh...did i just coin an Elvish euphemism?, only at the end of Five Armies did i realize a reason for Thranduil's comments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 07:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3111440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tauriel wrote Legolas a letter, in which she admits everything.  And she has a hunch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My lord's duty, my lord.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mira_Jade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mira_Jade/gifts).



> "Why does it hurt so?"  
> "Because it was real."
> 
> Was it love? The very question is unhelpful, given the many kinds of love exhibited in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (even Smaug loved)  
> :)

_"Tauriel?" Legolas asked, standing at the doorway of her chambers, seeing her standing in twilight shadows beside one wall.  Not leaning upon the wall, simply next to it._

_"I am fine...I will be fine," she said.  "I saw more combat than mortals might see in a lifetime.  Yet also I was absent from where I might have helped - that is why I sit alone, for now."  She looked over to him.  "As ever, I am yours to command.  Call on me when you have need of me.  My bow and eyes and blade and feet, we obey you."_

_"I didn't say before... I heard of Kili's death.  If you need -"_

_Tauriel left the wall, and came over to stand before him.  She held out a folded paper for him.  And waited._

_Legolas accepted the paper, but did not yet open it._

_"Everything is on there," Tauriel said.  "I have answered anything you might ask.  And I have an observation there, as well.  Travel safely, Legolas."_

_And she returned to her wall._

* * *

_Breaking long enough for his mount to rest, Legolas sat alone in the inn's private room, and opened Tauriel's letter to him._

To my good friend and kind lord, Legolas Greenleaf, son of our lord and king Thranduil... _Legolas skimmed past the couched politenesses, seeing the slant of the letters' lines and dots, and suspecting Tauriel was excising tension before whatever she had set out to write down for him.  Eventually, it read_

This I must say.  All of this, I must say.

**Destroy your enemies.**

He was an example, an exemplary one.  Thranduil, slayer of wyrms.  Thranduil, foe of darkness.  Liberator of orcs from their lifelong torment.

Under him, you and I met the orcs and spiders, and always prevailed against them.  We kept so much so safe.  We destroyed so much darkness.

'Do not pursue those fleeing and in flight.'  Concentrate upon keeping our woods safe...that is why we thought our lord set the limit.  Our woods were bounded. Sensible, wise, tactical, measured - 'that is why he is king and we are not' you once quipped to me.

I had not considered another reason.

**Protect those who are yours.**

Our lord Thranduil kept us within the Forest.  Thranduil, protector.  He fought to keep us safe - we fought to keep us all safe.  Defend those who do not fight, and those who can not yet fight.

The edge of our forest, "go no further," was his command.  Stay within.  Hone your skills, hone your mind, never wander in mind, never wander afield.  Do not tarry, do not linger, avoid the shortlived.  It was a mantra, a warning, and advice.

We saved saved Kili and his Dwarves - our focus was the spiders, later our focus was the orcs.  Even imprisoned, he spoke with tact and ease - it was not hard to like his manner.  He and I conversed, speaking of the moon and the stars - things which I had til then, spoken of only with fellow Elves.  When he left, I was more hunting orcs, I was less following Kili.

Then I saved him, again.  That is what is instilled in us, Legolas, I believe: to preserve life.  Though little is spoken of the way I did.  I am not as old {year-full} as your father, nor as those we have lived amongst, nor as those we have heard tales of.  I am not as soul-strong as them, nor as soul-practiced as them.  So when I saved Kili, a second time, I exposed my great vulnerability.  And nothing ill came of it, at the cusp of battle as it was.  What I had, it grew stronger.

Was it 'love'?  The very word is Mannish, limiting, vague and unhelpful.  Would you or I not be grief-burdened if we lost someone we had befriended?

Warning.  Advice.  Can a soul listen, if half the soul has not first died?  Can a soul warn, if it has not already borne loss?

**Be ready, always be ready.**

None are ready.  Your father knew this, yet gave his advice regardless. 

You mentioned your mother.  That loss, our lord Thranduil's every word was informed by it.  His warning to me, regarding mortals.  His orders to us, regarding the limits of the woods.  His focus upon the woods.  His keeping us all within, keeping us all safe.  The lights of our souls, well shielded, all of us.  But the cost of a shield...

Too late, I realize we were bounded - and when the shield breaks...

Our meeting so few new faces...who were not enemies.  It affected us, impacted us - or myself, at least.  I bent like a willow-Ent, following, not wishing to lose my first new friend in...you well know how long, my friend, my lord.

Thus now I do mourn.  I mourn though it was not a company-fellow who died, was not a fellowship-fellow who died.  I mourn the loss of a friend. 

Do not ask who I would mourn more - the very question, it invites darkness to settle at ease.

Of loss, my lord, none are ready.  May you take this with you, my lord, take it into the future wherever you go to.


End file.
